User:DavidaTamay/Darkroom: A Memoir in Black and White

Composition

“Weaver blurs the line between photographs and graphic narrative as potential sources for articulating family history.” (Jorge Santos). The inclusion of these photographs and graphic narratives allows Weaver to mix together the two sources, the photographs serve as the objective truth of what happened at the time. The graphic narratives let Weaver present a unique perspective that is her own, providing a new perspective on a very two-sided historical event. It continues to build emotions on top of the objective truths in the photographs. This emotional aspect is built upon what Weaver experiences and how she reacts to the events around her in school and the riots that would later in the story ensue.

“metacritical awareness of history as an editorial and curative process, simultaneously calling them to question what evidentiary forms, like the photograph or the film reel, we accept as truth.” (Ian Rocksborough-Smith). However, in the same vein that Weaver’s photographs can serve to shed light on the forgotten moments of history, it is important to question the accuracy of these photographs. Including the photographs changes the story’s structure as Weaver is now controlling where the reader looks and is causing the readers to think critically about the history of the Civil Rights movement, wondering what the objective truth is and what her subjective perspective on these events is.

Themes

Racial Identity

“Nevertheless, the artwork also makes it clear that this personal and cultural journey is not the sole focus of the graphic memoir. Prominently centered and carefully set in the foreground, a tightly cropped frame of a young African American couple—holding candles and singing—subtly obstructs the geographical destination of the United States.” (Peterson, Breckenridge). Although the story is about Weaver’s migration to America, she decides to focus on how her racial identity is affected by the Civil Rights movement. As an Argentinean immigrant, Weaver's position within the racial hierarchy was ambiguous, and she often found herself struggling to understand her place in the world. She uses her personal experiences to highlight the ways in which race intersects with other aspects of identity, such as class, nationality, and language.